If you described my lifestyle lately as “Doing math and playing outside,” I could hardly criticize you. Like many other engineers at Simplexity, I spend a fair amount of time… Read More
Doing Math and Playing Outside with Weblocks
HOW IT WORKS: TEARDOWN OF TWO AUDIO RECEIVERS, BUILT 40 YEARS APART
In this blog post we will explore two audio receivers, which are a stereo system’s control center for audio and video sources. Specifically, we will compare a Beomaster 1900 receiver,… Read More
FOUR CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS FOR MECHANICAL INTEGRATION OF OPTICAL SYSTEMS
Introduction Optical systems have always been important, and today they are more important than ever. Even before engineering, before lenses and curved mirrors, optics were important to animals with eyes. … Read More
BETTER FIRMWARE FASTER
A team from Simplexity recently attended Jack Ganssle’s “Better FW Faster” class. If you’re involved in the practice of embedded systems firmware engineering, you’ve probably heard of Jack and likely… Read More
CONSIDERATIONS FOR CODE REFACTORING
Tunnel vision. Every engineer suffers from it at one time or another. A programmer gets so lost in the details they miss the forest through the trees. Instead of writing… Read More
WHY ON EARTH ARE HEAVY WEIGHTS BEING SUSPENDED FROM THIS PRINTER?
Knuckles were as white as foam from a broken San Diego coastal wave as we applied 50 pounds of force on the printer, making the suspending rope taut. If I… Read More
ROBUST FIRMWARE STACK SIZING
Simplexity prides itself on simplifying product design. The simplest designs are often the most robust. This includes the design of embedded firmware. A major issue in developing firmware for an embedded… Read More
SENAPTEC STROBE: A STUDY IN SIMPLIFICATION
Senaptec, a company that provides state-of-the-art sensory technologies and products, had a great idea, but was in need of product development. They were developing the Senaptec Strobe, a pair of glasses… Read More
DESIGNING THERMAL CONTROL SYSTEMS
Precision temperature control in product design is a matter of degrees. Sometimes the Goldilocks zone is as broad as a barn door. When it is, life is easy. Sometimes though,… Read More
BATTLE OF THE BUTTONS: UCSD VS. PSU
Last semester, Simplexity presented a challenge to students at the University of California, San Diego and Portland State University: test buttons. This was a capstone design project for the students, which is an opportunity… Read More